With early voting underway in Michigan’s presidential primary, a group is calling on Democrats to vote uncommitted instead of for President Joe Biden.
“This is our protest vote at the ballot box,” Listen to Michigan campaign manager Layla Elabed said.
Elabed said the groups want to send a strong message to Biden over his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
The group is pushing for a cease-fire.
“We’re seeing a genocide unfold right in front of our eyes in 2024,” Elabed said.
Elabed’s sister, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, offered her support to voting uncommitted in a video posted on the group’s social media page.
The Michigan Democratic party is pushing back.
“We need to be clear-eyed about the threat Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans pose to working people and the choice Michiganders will face at the ballot box this November: our reproductive freedoms, our economic opportunity, and our democracy are all on the line,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement.
Listen to Michigan wants to show the power of the Arab American and Muslim vote in Michigan during the primary.
“This is a humanitarian vote,” Elabed said. “This is a vote to save lives. So right now, that is the hyper-focus.”
Elabed said that she knows that former President Donald Trump is no friend of the Arab American community, and no decision has been made about a protest vote in the general election.